1. Scope of Invention
This invention generally relates to electrolytic cells, and more particularly to an improved electrolytic system for the production of heat in a liquid electrolyte.
2. Prior Art
The present invention utilizes and improves upon microspheres formed of non-metallic beads which are plated with a uniformly thick coating of palladium. These palladium coated microspheres are taught in my previous U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,943,355 and 5,036,031. In these above-recited previous patents, cross linked polymer microspheres forming an inner core and having a plating of palladium thereatop are taught to exhibit improvements in the absorption of hydrogen and isotopes of hydrogen. Utilizing these catalytic microspheres led to my later U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,318,675 ('675) and 5,37'2,688 ('688) (incorporated herein by reference) which teach an electrolytic cell, system and method for, inter alia, producing heat.
The use of a palladium sheet to form one electrode within an electrolytic cell to produce excess heat, the electrolytic cell being a Pons-Fleischmann-type, is taught by Edmund Storms. The description of the Storms electrolytic cell and his experimental performance results are described in an article entitled Measurements of Excess Heat from a Pons-Fleischmann-Type Electrolytic Cell Using Palladium Sheet appearing in Fusion Technology, Volume 3, March 1993. In a previous article, Storms reviewed experimental observations about electrolytic cells for producing heat in an article entitled Review of Experimental Observations About the Cold Fusion Effect in FUSION TECHNOLOGY, Vol. 20, December 1991.
None of the previously reported experimental results or other prior art devices known to applicant other than my U.S. '675 and '688 patents have utilized or disclosed nonconductive copolymeric beads of palladium coated (or any substitute metal which will form "metallic hydrides" in the presence of hydrogen) conductive microspheres within an electrolytic cell for the production of heat and the electrolysis of water into its hydrogen and oxygen components.
The present invention discloses the heretofore unexpected self-sustaining nature of my previous work and all of the electrolytic cells and systems above described. Up to the present invention, it was believed that these previously described systems of mine required the continual current input across the bed of active metallic beads within the cell of the system. However, it has now been discovered as disclosed in this application that, by suitable triggering of the catalytic reaction wherein excess heat is produced, the current across the active bead bed within the cell may be eliminated whereby the cell continues to produce a differential temperature in the electrolyte passing therethrough.